French Open: Dominic Thiem after gala in the Paris semifinals
Dominic Thiem has moved into the semi-finals of the French Open as in the past three years. The Austrian defeated Karen Khachanov from Russia smoothly in three sets.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jun 06, 2019, 06:42 pm
By Jens Huiber from Paris
The entry was kind of gray this Thursday at the Stade Roland Garros. Specifically, there was free choice for the seats in the grandstands of Court Suzanne Lenglen: All fans who hadn't been able to see Grand Slam tennis on Wednesday due to the rain were also allowed back on the course, plus of course all those who were got a ground ticket. No wonder that queues formed early in front of the Lenglen entrances.
And those fans who were in Dominic Thiem's camp should not be disappointed: The Austrian, who was fourth, defeated Karen Khachanov 6: 2, 6: 4 and 6: 2 and will face Novak Djokovic in the second semi-final on Friday. The Serbian industry leader had won in three sets against Alexander Zverev.
Khachanov among the top ten for the first time
From the beginning, Thiem showed that this time he would make a different opponent than in autumn 2018 - at that time Khachanov prevailed with 6: 1 and 6: 4. This time Thiem got the Russian's first service game and didn't allow anything with his own service. And took the lead 6-2 after 32 minutes. The Slice Thiems was poisonous, the forehand had Pep - Thiem almost seamlessly followed his performance against Gael Monfils.
# BETATHOMEFO #
Perfect timing then in round two: Thiem scored four points in a row at 4: 4, 30: 0 and serve Khachanov. And served after 75 minutes to 6: 4. The Russian, who had defeated Juan Martin del Potro in the round of 16, mostly could not keep up in the longer rallies - Thiem played more variants. And above all with the backhand also more powerful.
Thiem warms up with Massu
Dominic Thiem struck again with coach Nicolas Massu in the late morning, Khachanov did not inspect the field. The 23-year-old, who will be among the top ten in the ATP world rankings for the first time from Monday, had won on the spot against Juan Martin del Potro late on Tuesday evening. And also pulled the audience to his side. Against Thiem, who has long had a stone on the board with French fans, Khachanov was also not without vocal support.
But that didn't help much in the third act either. Khachanov lost his serve to 2: 3, with a double mistake. That would have been enough for Dominic Thiem, who didn't allow a single breakball in the whole game. The fact that Karen Khachanov gave up his service again in the seventh game only accelerated the matter in favor of the last year's finalist. After a playing time of 1:48 hours, this quarter-final game was history. And like his first three matches in this round of the French Open, Dominic Thiem remained victorious this time.
In conversation with Cedric Pioline, Thiem emphasized once again that he had managed very well to control the rallies with the forehand. Given tomorrow's rain, Thiem said he wouldn't mind playing his semi-final on Suzanne Lenglen's court.